Beverages
329
What these persons might have accomplished, but failed to do because
of their intemperate habits, the great day of God alone will reveal.
Those who resort to tea and coffee for stimulation to labor, will
feel the evil effects of this course in trembling nerves and lack of
self-control. Tired nerves need rest and quiet. Nature needs time to
recuperate her exhausted energies. But if her forces are goaded on
by use of stimulants, there is, whenever this process is repeated, a
lessening of real force. For a time more may be accomplished under
the unnatural stimulus, but gradually it becomes more difficult to rouse
the energies to the desired point, and at last exhausted nature can no
longer respond.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 34-36,
1890
Harmful Effects Attributed to Other Causes
The habit of drinking tea and coffee is a greater evil than is often
suspected. Many who have accustomed themselves to the use of
stimulating drinks, suffer from headache and nervous prostration, and
lose much time on account of sickness. They imagine they cannot
live without the stimulus, and are ignorant of its effect upon health.
What makes it the more dangerous is, that its evil effects are so often
attributed to other causes.
Effects on Mind and Morals
Through the use of stimulants, the whole system suffers. The
nerves are unbalanced, the liver is morbid in its action, the quality and
circulation of the blood are affected, and the skin becomes inactive
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and sallow. The mind, too, is injured. The immediate influence of
these stimulants is to excite the brain to undue activity, only to leave
it weaker and less capable of exertion. The aftereffect is prostration,
not only mental and physical, but moral. As a result we see nervous
men and women, of unsound judgment and unbalanced mind. They
often manifest a hasty, impatient, accusing spirit, viewing the faults
of others as through a magnifying glass, and utterly unable to discern
their own defects.
When these tea and coffee users meet together for social entertain-
ment, the effects of their pernicious habit are manifest. All partake
freely of the favorite beverages, and as the stimulating influence is